fellow Apple II enthiousiasts,
I'm setting up 2 APPLE IIe's to run only one single piece of software.
I'd really love to get rid of the floppies or tape interface.
I've seen all kinds of solutions the past few years, scsi, compactflash, ide controllers and now even a USB stick?
Prices can get quite high though.
What is the cheapest solution for me? (keeping in mind I only ever need to run 1 program)
thanks in advance
Cheapest and easiest to implement: a floppy with that single program on it, set to auto-run.
Best non-floppy solution: CF, but expensive, as you note. It doesn't matter if you have 1 program or 100 to run... the CF solution costs the same. But it would be solid state and non-moving instead of a thin sheet of mylar getting torqued around by a little motor...
and whats the cheapest CF solution? i've seen a few (pardon my lazyness, i have to go)
The only CF solution on the market right now is the MicroDrive, at $135, so I guess that counts as "cheapest:"
http://www.reactivemicro.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_23&products_id=32
Rich Dreher doesn't have any more CFIDEs to sell, but may have a new product in the pipeline:
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php
There is also the Focus drive.
http://16sector.com/shop/a2Storage/focus-ide-hd-controller/
Ah, good point. The Focus card with CF adapter is $129:
http://16sector.com/shop/a2Storage/focus-ide-hd-controller--cf/
hadn't seen that one, nice..
How about an el cheapo $10 MP3 player and then just load over the cassette interface.
Macvooh,
There is a Run 6 CFFA card on eBay right now for $60.00.
I know that you probably don't want to spend that much, but the cards are well worth it. I have several installed on various Apple II's and they have worked great for me.
It won't sell for $60. In fact I would not be surprised if it went for more than the original cost.
thought about that..
first of all, i dunno if mp3's work
second of all, that would keep me from saving data.
Depending on who out there is willing to put out the moolah, you're probably right Littlejohn. The Run 6 cards are scarce. I bought two initially when they became available and another part way through the run. I wouldn't give mine up for anything. lol Rich has me down to be notified when the 3000 is available. The discussion about USB support has been going on for several years now.
It's a great time to be an Apple II fan.
"Apple II!! It's STILL ALIVE !!!!" LOL
I got three of the run 6 cards, and I kick myself for not getting more. They are the best Hard Drive cards there are, and I have 'em all.
Microdrive
Microdrive Turbo
CFFA card
Focus card
SCSI's (all flavors)
Sider's
ZipDrive IIgs (SUPER RARE - only 5 known to exist)
MP3s should work. IIRC correctly the frequency range used is rather small, especially considering that it was designed to work with inexpensive consumer grade equipment.
Saving the data is a good point. Guess we should ask what is the program that you are running?
Does you system have a super serial card. I believe that using ADTpro you can IPL from a serial connection to another system. Then with some scripting you could provide a facility to transmit return data.
Another option might be a custom card with ROMs or maybe even battery backed RAM.
can someone guide me through on how to make an avatar for my account? I understand that the maximum pixels are 85X85 , but how do I size down a snap shot and use it? is there a simple program that I can use to acomplish this task? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks.
Patrick.
A2forever
ok, I'll try it, but my experience is most tape dumps dont work with mp3 (as experienced with other hardware,not apple II)
Roland CM-APL software (someone linked the .dsk in the mac gui vault topic in case you're interested)
It controls the Roland CMU-800 synthesizer control unit.
i have one serial card that should work the same (although i havent gotten it to work last time i tried).
there a topic about it here.
I dunno but I might aswel just save to tape then - not that i tried?
The cool part though is I could edit the data elsewhere.
actually that was the first thing i thought about:
place the software on a rom, and add sram to save the data.
If I'd delve into it I might be able to do it. But I really have to much projects I'm on at the moment and I really don't know where to start (well, I do: start reading all the manuals and guides I've collected so far)
Wish I had nothing to do...
Thanks for the suggestions so far guys!
Nope, it won't work. mp3 cuts off the transitions that the Apple II listens for - it's not just a frequency response issue. See this thread:
http://www.applefritter.com/node/19961#comment-47469